A Bird’s Eye View on the Workshop on Population Aging And Health in Middle and Low Income countries

The workshop on Population Aging and Health in Middle and Low Income countries (LMICs) that we organized with the Population Aging Research Center and Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania took place last week.

In addition to gathering experts in the field and discussing the challenges and consequences of aging in LMICs, it was a great opportunity for us to present the r4d program and our project to the participants of the workshop.

Professor Jürgen Maurer (University of Lausanne), the main PI of the project, presented the Swiss r4d program and its global coverage to the participants as an introductory presentation to our workshop.

Afterwards Professor Hans-Peter Kohler (University of Pennsylvania) further explained the consequences and challenges aging generates in LMICs from the perspective of demography, which is his field of expertise.

The workshop also allowed us to present some preliminary results of our different sub-projects.

Dr Ravi Rannan-Eliya (Institute for Health Policy) presented the impressive structure and components of the study he and his team are putting in place in Sri Lanka while Prof Iliana Kohler (University of Pennsylvania) and Prof Owen O’Donnell (University of Lausanne) showed preliminary findings of our projects in Malawi and the Philippines, respectively, emphasizing on the importance of knowledge and information to prevent, treat and control non-communicable diseases. Prof Jinkook Lee (University of Southern California) also presented results of her ongoing project in India.

Overall, the workshop was very successful as it allowed to learn and discuss about different experiences and facilitated exploration of follow-ups including the possibilities of establishing a network with ongoing relations and developing joint projects.